Discus and support The Lock option on the Find My Device tab of my Devices on my Microsoft Account in AntiVirus, Firewalls and System Security to solve the problem; My laptop has been stolen through a broken car window. I have headed to my Microsoft Account and to my Devices (https://account.microsoft.com/devices)...
Discussion in 'AntiVirus, Firewalls and System Security' started by OGezer, Sep 6, 2018.

The Lock option on the Find My Device tab of my Devices on my Microsoft Account

My laptop has been stolen through a broken car window. I have headed to my Microsoft Account and to my Devices (https://account.microsoft.com/devices) and then Find My Device tab for my stolen laptop. The last location is from May 2018, so I think I turned the location tracking services off at some point. There is, however, also a Lock button there. When clicked, it displays the following message:

Log out any active users and disable local users. Administrators with permissions will still have access, but unauthorized access will be blocked. Your device will be locked and location tracking services will be enabled.

Sounds just perfect. When clicked next, it asks for a 160-character message for returning instructions to be displayed on the device's screen, for a good-soul to hand it back, as a final step. It then tries to reach and lock the device, and then fails, but very softly. It says that it couldn't lock it right now, but also that they'll inform me via my e-mail once it's locked successfully, implying that Microsoft will lock it as soon as possible:

We can't lock your device right now.

We'll let you know when we successfully lock it.

My question is, when exactly will Microsoft be able to lock my device, and what are the limitations?

Will it be somehow magically locked-down as soon as the computer is turned on?

Will it be locked down only if they connect it to the internet, possibly from the lock-screen?

Will it be locked down only if they manage to log-in my account?

Will it be both 3 and THEN 2?

Additionally:

Will it be possible if they somehow format the laptop from a bootable USB recovery disk, because perhaps Microsoft has some kind of identifiers for the device that persist even after a format, like the motherboard serial, MAC address, etc.?

Thanks Brink
I get different reactions every time I try to delete a device, but the result is that I cannot remove the devices.
I'll go back to local accounts and delete the Microsoft account.
I changed to Microsoft account because I wanted to use the Continue on PC feature. This feature doesn't work so I think that I'll just forget about it.
Thanks for your interest.

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